Lloyd Alexander (1924-2007) was one the greatest authors of novels for young people. His five book series Chronicles of Prydain is one of the most entertaining and profound fantasy epics of all time. Before becoming an author of over 40…Read more ›

Albert Camus, in chapter two of his profound novel The Fall, has his character Jean-Baptiste Clamence present us with the following troubling, yet certainly applicable in some cases, observations: “Have you ever noticed that death alone awakens our feelings? How…Read more ›

In this post I want to take a look at some interesting comments by G.W. Leibniz (1646-1716) about the nature of propositions and how their ability to combine the way they do makes them different from physical objects. His insights…Read more ›

I favor approaches to morality that make reference to human nature like natural law theory (for an overview natural law theory in relation to social justice go here) and natural virtue ethics (for some virtue ethics insights in relation to…Read more ›

I think we should embrace what many philosophers take to be a plausible view regarding truth if we are committed to propositions as truth bearers, namely, its omnitemporality: If a proposition is true it is omnitemporally true: it always was,…Read more ›

Jacques Ellul, in his book Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (Vintage, 1965), defines propaganda as follows: “Propaganda is a set of methods employed by an organized group that wants to bring about the active or passive participation in its…Read more ›

Science, for many philosophers and scientists alike, should be firmly committed to using experiments to demonstrate various cause and effect relations. Consider this proposition: “These boys were watching a violent movie and then they went out and acting violently towards…Read more ›

In a previous post (here) we considered Thomas Hobbes’ account of how, once hedonism and egoism are embraced, love can quickly become entangled in self-defeating power relations. G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) offers us another way to think about love as power…Read more ›

Can chance without law exist? It doesn’t seem so. It seems we have to appeal to laws to make sense of any chance changes that occur. W. B. Gallie, in his book Peirce and Pragmatism, claims that “the idea of…Read more ›

The great Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) was, among other things, an Italian renaissance scholar, Catholic priest, humanist philosopher, astrologer, doctor, musician, reviver of Platonism, and the first translator of Plato’s complete extant works into Latin. He was also the head of…Read more ›

Most definitions of the art movement known as minimalism usually end up oversimplifying things given the rich diversity of artists and works involved. Nonetheless, there is a set of family resemblances that can help us put the word to good…Read more ›

In his essay “What Pragmatism Means” the great American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910) asserts that pragmatism represents the empiricist attitude in both “a more radical and in a less objectionable form than it has ever yet assumed” (see…Read more ›

Here are some notes on Jean-Paul Sartre’s (1905-1980) Being and Nothingness that continue, on some level, to apply to the world around me more than any other set of philosophical propositions. Sartre argued freedom is a defining characteristic of human…Read more ›

One question to which Aristotle’s conception of friendship has traditionally given rise is this: is friendship motivated by altruistic motives or egoistic ones? Put differently: when we are engaged in the activity of friendship do we act for the sake…Read more ›

In his Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790) Immanuel Kant gives a fascinating and influential account of the sublime. In this post I will go over the basics as covered in the section “Analytic of the Sublime” with the…Read more ›

According to philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) we are typically (1) egoists motivated out of self-interest and (2) hedonists who desire pleasure and security over all else. This means we inevitably seek love since it gives us the most intense pleasure…Read more ›

In this post I would like to explore, with the help of some insights from G.W. Leibniz (1646-1716), a few interesting yet controversial points about perception and how these points suggest perception is not something that occurs in the brain.…Read more ›

In life we often have to fit in. We need to conform to certain roles in order to make friends, get a job, and be successful. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, a sense of belonging is integral to our…Read more ›

In previous posts we have seen ways in which Eros (erotic love) can imply, lead to, or be thwarted by Thanatos (death). Here is yet another example of a relation between the two. In his book The Meanings of Love…Read more ›

Soren Kierkegaard About 20 years ago I read this entry from Soren Kierkegaard, Papers and Journals (Penguin) and thought it was, well, quite silly: “The best proof of the soul’s immortality, God’s existence, etc. is really the…Read more ›

In a set of previous posts I explore what I take to be one of the most perceptive and useful accounts of moral evil available, namely, that put forth in chapter 4 of Soren Kierkegaard’s (1813-1855) eccentric work The Concept of…Read more ›

In chapter 4 of his book Civilizations and its Discontents (translation by James Strachey) Freud writes: “Before we go on to enquire from what quarter an interference might arise, this recognition of love as one of the foundations of civilization may…Read more ›

When we try to diagnose the many social ills we have in our country it is easy to get bogged down with specifics that lead us to treat symptoms rather than causes. One way to gain some vision is to…Read more ›

In his writings the American philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952) presents some very interesting thoughts on the imagination that connect it to creativity, art, consciousness, perception, mind, and the projections of wholes that offer context for everything from navigating our local…Read more ›

Umberto Eco, in his book On Ugliness (Rizzoli, 2007), provides a helpful way to categorize our experience of ugliness. There is (1) Ugliness in itself which gives rise to a visceral, negative reaction. Here we can think of feces, a rotting animal,…Read more ›

Introduction Love, for centuries, has been associated with divine powers. Of course, it is a bit more fashionable these days, and a bit more scientific, to think of love as a function of neurochemistry. But it is interesting to consider…Read more ›

Machiavelli In The Prince (Penguin: 1981), Machiavelli (1469-1527) wrote: “There are two things a prince must fear: internal subversion from his subjects; and external aggression by foreign powers. Against the latter, his defense lies in being well-armed and having good…Read more ›

A still from Ingmar Bergman’s thoughtful horror film The Hour of the Wolf Aesthetic expressions of horror are produced and enjoyed by people all over the world. But some bemoan such horror and do their best to avoid it. However,…Read more ›

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), in his book Daybreak (1881), wrote: “On Education. – I have gradually seen the light as to the most universal deficiency in our kind of cultivation and education: no one learns, no one strives after, no one…Read more ›

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), in his book Daybreak (1881), wrote: “On Education. – I have gradually seen the light as to the most universal deficiency in our kind of cultivation and education: no one learns, no one strives after, no one…Read more ›

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), in his book Daybreak (1881), wrote: “On Education. – I have gradually seen the light as to the most universal deficiency in our kind of cultivation and education: no one learns, no one strives after, no one…Read more ›

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), in his book Daybreak (1881), wrote: “On Education. – I have gradually seen the light as to the most universal deficiency in our kind of cultivation and education: no one learns, no one strives after, no one…Read more ›

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), in his book Daybreak (1881), wrote: “On Education. – I have gradually seen the light as to the most universal deficiency in our kind of cultivation and education: no one learns, no one strives after, no one…Read more ›

What is the purpose of education? Some common answers come to mind: education is a means to gaining more income, finding one’s calling, cultivating an enriched inner life, being a productive citizen, or becoming a life-long learner. These goals need…Read more ›

In May 1963, the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) retrospectively described his films “Through a Glass Darkly”, “Winter Light”, and “The Silence” as a trilogy with a theme: “The theme of these three films is a ‘reduction’ – in…Read more ›

In May 1963, the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) retrospectively described his films “Through a Glass Darkly”, “Winter Light”, and “The Silence” as a trilogy with a theme: “The theme of these three films is a ‘reduction’ – in…Read more ›

In May 1963, the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) retrospectively described his films “Through a Glass Darkly”, “Winter Light”, and “The Silence” as a trilogy with a theme: “The theme of these three films is a ‘reduction’ –…Read more ›

“Dogs bark at whomsoever they do not recognize” (translated by T. M. Robinson) This aphorism from Heraclitus (fl. c. 500 B.C.E.) suggests many humans are like dogs insofar as they “bark” at that which they think is different. They bark…Read more ›

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) opens his masterpiece Leviathan (1651) with some startling claims that reduce life to a series of motions and mechanisms: “Nature (the art whereby God hath made and governs the world) is by the art of man, as…Read more ›

July 4, 2017 The framers of the Declaration of Independence knew they couldn’t justify a rebellion against the King of England given the Divine Right of Kings theory of government. According to this theory, Kings rule by divine right which…Read more ›

I have been thinking a lot about what philosophical positions might be implied by the fact that we present and evaluate arguments. Consider this argument or set of premises from which a conclusion is derived: Premise 1: All humans are…Read more ›

It is important not to overlook how listening to music is compatible with so many human activities. Some music, of course, is incompatible with study, conversation, relaxation, etc. But in so many cases we can listen to music while doing…Read more ›

In past posts I have considered two popular theories of art, namely, the imitation theory (here) and formalism (here and here). In this post I want to take a look at the expression theory of art and some of its possibilities. Consider Leo Tolstoy’s…Read more ›

Psychologist Stephen Pinker, in his book The Blank Slate (Penguin, 2002), writes: “When a surgeon sends an electrical current into the brain, the person can have a vivid, lifelike experience. When chemicals seep into the brain, they can alter the person’s perception,…Read more ›

Determinism is the view that, given the laws of nature, all events are the necessary effects of previous events. When applying this to systems, one can say that a system is deterministic if there is only one way the system…Read more ›

Consider an aphorism attributed to Heraclitus of Epheseus (active circa 500 BC): “They do not understand how, while being at variance, it is in agreement with itself. There is a back-turning connection, like that of a bow or lyre” (frag.…Read more ›

The more the form and material of a work are disregarded in favor of its subject matter the more we seem to lose a work of art. So, suppose we are listening to a folk musician with a compelling political…Read more ›

Truth, for so many thinkers throughout history, has been seen as existing independent of human minds. But it seems far more sensible to embrace an anthropological account of truth which Robert Adams nicely describes as the view “that the truths…Read more ›

In his book Human, All Too Human, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote something we should all keep in mind: A friend’s secret. – There will be few who, when they are in want of matter for conversation, do not reveal the more secret…Read more ›

The great Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) was, among other things, an Italian renaissance scholar, Catholic priest, humanist philosopher, astrologer, doctor, musician, reviver of Platonism, and the first translator of Plato’s complete extant works into Latin. He was also the head of…Read more ›

It is popular these days to think about evil from a scientific perspective that sees evil as, for example, a function of an improperly working brain. Such approaches typically remove free will and the more traditional parameters in which discussions…Read more ›

Many of our efforts at self-examination presuppose at least a sense of things we don’t know. We sense our life is inadequate and take steps to acquire more knowledge to remove our ignorance. We widen our scope, gain new perspectives, and…Read more ›

On June 10th, 1997 my father, Philip Goodyear, passed away due to a car accident. He was 57 years old. Part of my process of remembrance in 2017 was transcribing a graduation speech he gave at Pascack Valley High School…Read more ›

Sometime between 1883 and 1888 the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche made a startling observation: “No, facts is precisely what there is not, only interpretations.” This view, which Nietzsche called perspectivism, has recently found an unparalleled analogue in American politics. For example,…Read more ›

Jacques Derrida, in his book The Gift of Death (Chicago: 1995) presents what he calls the “aporia of responsibility”. An aporia is an impasse, a state of paralysis where we are lost for how to move through some place, set…Read more ›

Today is Memorial Day 2017. For many it is a day for honoring those members of the armed forces that died in battle. But, as you know, many people are more interested in barbecues and other forms of recreation these…Read more ›

Plato, in his dialogue Republic (see Book II, lines 368-374), has Socrates construct an ideal state in order to figure out what an ideal soul would look like. Socrates begins by describing a variety of people – shoemaker, weaver, builder, farmer,…Read more ›

Aristotle (384-322 BC), in his Metaphysics, observed that philosophers study being or reality at the most general level. To do so, they need to use logic or syllogisms; and to use logic they need to be absolutely clear about certain principles…Read more ›

A few years ago my wife and I owned some chickens. Unfortunately, one the chickens was attacked by a raccoon and badly injured. After some time, the chicken was healthy again but somewhat disfigured. Much to my dismay, the other…Read more ›

John Locke (1632-1704), in Book II of his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) writes: “Our observation employed either about external sensible objects, or about the internal operations of our minds perceived and reflected upon by ourselves, is that which supplies our…Read more ›

Many people make resolutions on New Year’s Day. It is a day of beginnings and endings and is often accompanied by faith and hope in the new. But can there ever really be a new beginning? Well, the making and…Read more ›

Many think we criticize works of art to find out which ones are better than others—to discover excellence and then, in reference to some overarching standard, rank works from the best to the worst. However, this view might overvalue value…Read more ›

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer wasn’t allowed to join in those reindeer games. The games, that is, of the normal reindeer, the ones that looked like each other. He was shunned as a misfit who wasn’t worth much. After all, worth…Read more ›

It appears to be the case that people commit crimes out of passion, compulsion, or planning with reference to some desired good. Crimes of passion cannot be deterred since one doesn’t think carefully (or at all) when one commits a…Read more ›

St. Gregory of Nyssa (335-394), in his work On the Soul and Resurrection (St. Vladmir’s Seminary Press, 1993), presents a very stimulating dialogue between two characters: Gregory and his sister Macrina. Through Macrina he argues that the existence of virtue…Read more ›

Plato, in his dialogue Phaedo, has Socrates refer to philosophy as “the practice of death”. In the dialogue, this practice is presented as one in which the philosopher tries to remove herself from the seductions of the sensible world in…Read more ›

What is the relation between logos (speech, reason) and eros (love)? Some say there is no relation since love is just a matter of emotions, feelings, passions, and actions. But according to Plato’s developmental vision of eros encountered in his…Read more ›

In the last two posts I explored the basics of natural law theory and some examples of it in action in relation to social justice. Now let’s take a closer look Martin Luther King, Jr.’s use of the theory which,…Read more ›

In part 1 of this series, I laid out the basics of natural law theory and we looked at some examples from Aristotle and Aquinas. Now let’s turn to three examples of the theory in relation to social justice. Throughout…Read more ›

The philosopher John Rawls, in the beginning of his classic book A Theory of Justice, wrote the following intuitively appealing description of justice: “Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory…Read more ›

In his classic work On Liberty (1859), John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) claimed that the freedom of thought and discussion was indispensable to a free society. Mill’s argument in defense of this freedom revolves around fallibilism or the view that no…Read more ›

Plato’s (427-347 B.C.) Republic is primarily a book, despite its many themes and topics, about justice in the soul and the state. Socrates’ analysis of justice is undertaken to justify the claim that we should all be virtuous even if we…Read more ›

Spring is coming upon us. Just today I saw some green growth in my garden emerging from the seemingly endless days of white, gray, brown, and black. Where there seemed to be just frozen ground and mutilated remnants there was…Read more ›

In his book On Dialogue (Routledge, 1996), the late theoretical physicist David Bohm wrote: “On the whole, you could say that if you are defending your opinions you are not serious” (48). Bohm argues that real dialogue is marked by…Read more ›

Die Fahne Hoch! Frank Stella, 1959 In previous posts we have seen ways in which Eros (love) can imply, lead to, or be thwarted by Thanatos (death). Here is yet another example of a relation between the two that…Read more ›

In Plato’s Symposium we learn that love is the desire for the continued possession of the Good (206a-b) and that the Good is ultimately eternal Being that is timeless and always “the same in every way” (208b). Thus the goal…Read more ›

Introduction Plato, in his dialogue Symposium, has his character Eryximachus present a speech in praise of love that is really a speech in praise of himself and his abilities as a doctor. As a doctor, he claims to possess…Read more ›

Judge William and Johannes the Seducer are two fictional characters created by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) in his book Either/Or. The Judge, representing an ethical way of life and love, argues that love, if it is to be…Read more ›

The imitation theory of art is the oldest philosophy of art we have in the Western philosophical tradition. The theory has its philosophical roots in ancient Greece with Plato and Aristotle and continues to be one very popular way to…Read more ›

How is it that we can experience incoming data from the five senses as coherent, rather than incoherent, perceptions of objects and people? This issue, often referred to as “the binding problem” in neuroscience, has been a concern of philosophers…Read more ›

Martin Luther King, Jr., in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (April 16, 1963), asserts that segregation, far from being only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, is also morally wrong insofar as it “distorts the soul and damages the personality.”…Read more ›

The Intrigue by James Ensor, 1890 It makes a lot of sense to maintain that the emotions we experience in the presence of art are very different from the emotions we experience in non-aesthetic contexts. We may feel fear, sadness, or happiness…Read more ›

In Plato’s dialogue Phaedrus there is an interesting exchange between Theuth, the old God who invented writing, and King Thamus, the man who is critical of it: “But when it came to writing, This, said Theuth, will make the Egyptians…Read more ›

In his essay “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings” William James (1842-1910) argues that our ideals and ideas are intimately associated with our feelings. This can be a good thing since feelings both enable our ideas about things to…Read more ›

In previous posts we have seen ways in which Eros (love) can imply, lead to, or be thwarted by Thanatos (death). Here is yet another example of a dynamic relation between the two from Alfred North Whitehead. In his book…Read more ›

A theodicy is an attempt to justify God’s attributes (usually all knowing, all good, and all powerful) in the face of evil. One way to justify God in the face of evil is to claim that evil is actually orchestrated…Read more ›

In the last post, I considered how Shakespeare’s Richard III can be used to illustrate five stages of tyranny in politics. Now let’s look at how the play, on the one hand, illustrates four forms of evil, namely, demonic, instrumental,…Read more ›

Shakespeare’s Richard III, although fairly simple in structure, is rich in philosophical insights. In this series of posts I will explore many of these insights. Let’s begin by looking at how the play illustrates stages of tyranny that can be…Read more ›

An ideal many philosophers have pursued is a belief system characterized by logical consistency. Such a belief system, far from being just an objective goal existing apart from the self, would be integral, if not identical, to the self. In…Read more ›

In the last three posts I have considered Plato’s argument for the immortality of the soul in book X of his dialogue the Republic. I would like to finish this series with a look at one attempt to present a…Read more ›

In the last two posts I considered Plato’s argument for the immortality of the soul that appears in book X of his dialogue Republic. Now I would like to say a few words about how the theme of immortality can…Read more ›

In post #79 I introduced Plato’s argument for the immortality of the soul in Book X of his dialogue Republic (all quotations will be from Cornford’s translation). I then discussed the argument’s central claim – the essential destructibility claim – which…Read more ›

The intellectual and dramatic flow of Plato’s dialogue Republic is driven by Socrates’ attempt to show what justice is and why being just is superior to being unjust. A character, Glaucon, presents a challenge to Socrates in Book II: why…Read more ›

There is an interesting contrast between Aristotle and Friedrich Nietzsche when it comes to the notion of a good man and whether such a man should change and despise himself. Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, writes that the good man…Read more ›

The new version of the show Cosmos, like the old version, shows many cases of mistaken astrological thinking being replaced by empirically verified astronomical evidence. For many people these advances are welcome. Certainly those who think scientifically will not accept…Read more ›

In his book The Wanderer and His Shadow (aphorism #204), Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “End and Goal: Not every end is a goal. The end of a melody is not its goal; but nonetheless, if the melody had not reached its…Read more ›

The enlightenment rationalist G. W. Leibniz (1646-1716) was a master at articulating certain general and fundamental principles and applying these principles to various philosophical problems. Principles are statements of basic laws, truths, or rules from which other laws, truths, or…Read more ›

In his book The Courage to Teach,[1] Parker J. Palmer claims that objectivism is false and that a new conception of truth needs to be put in its place. Without this new conception we will perpetuate “disconnections between teachers, their…Read more ›

Is there a relationship between beauty and freedom? If we accept some central ideas about beauty from Immanuel Kant we can say that there is. In this essay I want to show how, given Kant’s analysis, we can discern some…Read more ›

All too often the petty rage over a delay in our path to the future precludes our sensitivity to the now. This can be seen in all its horror when we realize that our rage, despite the fact that it…Read more ›

In post #55 I explored, with reference to Freud, the dynamics of eros (love) and thanatos (death). Here I would like to continue these reflections with reference to Plato. In his dialogue Symposium, Plato has his character Socrates tell us…Read more ›

The late director Ingmar Bergman concluded his masterful film Cries and Whispers [1] with a diary entry by Agnes, a character who has recently passed away. The entry is spoken to us by Agnes as we see the images her…Read more ›

In his essay The Poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson tells us that “we stand before the secret of the world, there where Being passes into Appearance, and Unity into Variety”. For a deeper insight into this secret we can turn to…Read more ›

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer wasn’t allowed to join in those reindeer games. The games, that is, of the normal reindeer, the ones that looked like each other. He was shunned as a misfit who wasn’t worth much. After all, worth…Read more ›

‘Existentialism’ is a term that usually refers to philosophies that revolve around general and fundamental notions like authentic selfhood (or lack thereof), responsibility, choice, anxiety, death, commitment, and passion. Existential philosophers usually avoid discussing impersonal issues and issues in an…Read more ›

In the previous post we saw how aspects of Stoker’s Dracula can be interpreted through the psychoanalytic lens. This led us to consider symbols of unconscious drives, fears, wishes, and defense mechanisms. We also saw how sadism, masochism, and repression…Read more ›

In 1897 Bram Stoker wrote his novel Dracula and, in doing so, set the archetype for the modern vampire. Vampire legends had been around since at least the ancient world[1] and the term ‘vampire’ was in circulation since at least…Read more ›

In this three-part introduction to Soren Kierkegaard I have tried, so far, to make it clear (1) what Kierkegaard’s fundamental problem is; (2) what his solution to the problem is. We have seen that disintegrated selfhood is the problem and…Read more ›

In the first part of my overview of Soren Kierkegaard’s philosophy, I argued that his fundamental problem is the wide-spread distintegration of the self or inauthenticity. Kierkegaard’s answer to the problem of inauthenticity can be simply stated: we must develop…Read more ›

In this introduction to Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) I want to do three things: (1) make it clear what Kierkegaard’s fundamental problem is; (2) make it clear what his solution to the problem is; and (3) discuss the three ways of…Read more ›

Ernest Becker, in his Pulitzer Prize winning book The Denial of Death (New York: Free Press, 1973), argues that “the problem of heroics is the central one of human life, that it goes deeper into human nature than anything else…Read more ›

To fall in love with God is the greatest of romances, to seek Him the greatest adventure, to find Him the greatest human achievement. – St. Augustine Assume, for the moment, that God exists. Can we fall in love with…Read more ›

What is the relationship between moral duty and love? Can there be a relationship? Should there be one? Let’s begin to address these questions by considering this controversial claim: Love between persons can come into existence only when moral duty…Read more ›

Get on the Ground: A Reflection for Russell Ippolito’s Memorial Service at Westchester Community College Dwight Goodyear Over the last five years I had the good fortune of talking with Russ almost every week on Thursday evenings. We both had…Read more ›

René Descartes had three fundamental goals in his philosophy: (1) he wanted to find something certain—a goal which flows from his modern agenda to sweep away the mistakes of the past and find a new method to reach the truth…Read more ›

Sigmund Freud, in Civilization and Its Discontents, claims, like the pre-Socratic Empedocles before him, that there are two “Heavenly Powers” or mutually opposing instincts: Eros and Thanatos. Freud characterizes these two principles as follows: eros is the instinct to conserve…Read more ›

The Greek tragic playwright Sophocles presented a truly terrifying image of man: he is the species whose ability to master nature is paralleled only by his failure to master himself (cf. Antigone, 368ff). J. Peter Euben elaborates: “Humans are, at…Read more ›

J.R. Pierce gives an argument against originality in music, an argument that can be generalized to the other arts. He writes: “If a human being finds monotonous that which is mathematically most various and unpredictable, what does he find fresh…Read more ›

There is certainly something wonderful about people expressing themselves without any formal training. For example, the punk movement included many young people who just decided to form a band and THEN learned a little bit in order to be heard.…Read more ›

In this post I would like to present an argument against the death penalty based on the philosophical position known as fallibilism. What is fallibilism? Well, the word ‘fallible’ means capable of being mistaken. If we add an “ism” on…Read more ›

Tristan Tzara, in his Dadaist Manifesto of 1918, argued that Dadaists were out to “assassinate beauty”. But why would anyone want to assassinate beauty? In the previous post I discussed, with reference to Plato’s Symposium, Roger Scruton’s account of this…Read more ›

For centuries it was understood that if something was art then it was beautiful. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many artists turned their backs on beauty. Here we could think of various works created within the romantic movement…Read more ›

In his work Metaphysics, Aristotle makes an important distinction between two types of activities: those which do not have their end or goal (telos) within themselves and those which do (1048b20). Aristotle gives an example of one that does not:…Read more ›

Many people make resolutions on New Year’s Day. It is a day of beginnings and endings and is often accompanied by faith and hope in the new. But can there ever really be a new beginning? Well, the making and…Read more ›

In his book Daybreak (Cambridge, translated by R.J. Hollingdale), Friedrich Nietzsche writes something remarkable about vanity: “Vanity is the fear of appearing original: it is thus a lack of pride, but not necessarily a lack of originality.” (aphorism # 365)…Read more ›

In post #41 (see here) I presented an essay exploring the relationship between freedom and critical thinking. Here I want to briefly suggest that human freedom, that most elusive yet visceral of phenomena, can be understood in a very immediate way…Read more ›

The last two posts I looked at the interactive models of education proposed by Socrates (470-399) and John Dewey (1859-1952). Now it is time to briefly compare the two models and draw some conclusions for individual and political growth. Similarities…Read more ›

Anyone who studies the philosophy of education will quickly discover that there are two central models of how knowledge comes to be acquired: on one hand, we have an ignorant and passive pupil who receives information from an active and…Read more ›

Anyone who studies the philosophy of education will quickly discover that there are two central models of how knowledge comes to be acquired: on one hand, we have an ignorant and passive pupil who receives information from an active and…Read more ›

Can we, sometimes, make free choices? Obviously, a lot rides on what we mean by free choices. Mark Balaguer has recently formulated a helpful definition in his book Free Will (MIT, 2014): a choice is the product of my free…Read more ›

So many children, including my own son, had intense joy today because of, among other things, MANY lies told about Santa. I loved Christmas as a child and still do. I had a happy childhood and have become a well-adjusted…Read more ›

On Christmas Eve our thoughts often turn to those who are no longer with us – especially those who we have loved. This is fitting. But it is also difficult to retain these thoughts for long. Memories can be as…Read more ›

In his book Human, All Too Human, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) has an aphorism entitled Love and Duality which reads: “What is love but understanding and rejoicing at the fact that another lives, feels, and acts in a way different from and…Read more ›

In post #23 we saw how aesthetics can play a role in global education (see here). Let’s continue by looking at some other ways aesthetics can help us learn. In his book The Aesthetic Understanding, Roger Scruton points out that science…Read more ›

According to many people the world was supposed to end today. Why did they think this? There are certainly many reasons. But I would like to suggest one reason, informed by existential philosophy, that is often overlooked: some people want…Read more ›

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) argues that all natural things have an end or purpose they are trying to consciously or unconsciously achieve. Nature is thus teleological: it is purposeful and all natural processes are undertaken for the sake of realizing essential…Read more ›

In the last few posts I noted the following virtues that John Dewey thought accompany intelligent action: Being conscientious or being interested in finding out what the actual good of a certain situation is Maintaining a bias toward fairness and…Read more ›

In the last few posts I noted the following virtues that John Dewey thought accompany intelligent action: Being conscientious or being interested in finding out what the actual good of a certain situation is Maintaining a bias toward fairness and…Read more ›

In the last post I noted the following virtues that John Dewey thought accompany intelligent action: Being conscientious or being interested in finding out what the actual good of a certain situation is Maintaining a bias toward fairness and objectivity…Read more ›

In the last post I noted the following virtues that John Dewey thought accompany intelligent action: Being conscientious or being interested in finding out what the actual good of a certain situation is Maintaining a bias toward fairness and objectivity…Read more ›

In the last post, I defined tragic conflict and suggested three reasons why we should take it seriously. Now, let us ask: How Can We Address Tragic Conflict? In 1960 Sidney Hook wrote an essay entitled “Pragmatism and the Tragic…Read more ›

What is Tragic Conflict? We hear the words ‘tragedy’ and ‘tragic’ quite often. A car accident is said to be tragic and the death of someone is a tragedy. It seems that in common parlance a tragedy is a terrible…Read more ›

In his Meditations (1641), Rene Descartes argues for a version of metaphysical dualism that maintains the mind and body are two completely different types of entities. The mind is not physical and so is not extended, doesn’t take up space,…Read more ›

Ethical egoism is the view that people should always be motivated out of self-interest. The word ‘ethical’ here doesn’t mean good; it simply means that this form of egoism is not just describing but prescribing a course of behavior. So…Read more ›

One of the most amazing things about the world in which we live is the technology of communication. The written word is printed and distributed quicker than ever before. We have satellite radio and hundreds of TV channels. And now…Read more ›

One problem that faces global education is avoiding superficial, or even dangerously inaccurate, descriptions of a culture. So much of our access to other cultures comes through indirect sources that, unfortunately, can be full of oversimplifications, radical misunderstandings, stereotypes, projections,…Read more ›

The Danish proto-existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) put forth an intriguing account of the demonic in chapter 4 of his eccentric work The Concept of Anxiety (see the Princeton edition translated by the Hongs). Kierkegaard claims the demonic person has “anxiety about the…Read more ›

The surrealists[1] were very influenced by Freud’s naturalistic approach to the mind as well as occult phenomenon. But they tried to distance themselves from both influences by, on the one hand, trying to probe the unconscious without using reason as…Read more ›

In the last post I defined the uncanny as follows: The uncanny is an unsettling, even terrifying, experience of the familiar suddenly becoming unfamiliar at the same time (or the unfamiliar suddenly becoming familiar at the same time). The experience…Read more ›

The aesthetic category of the uncanny became popular in late romanticism (late 1800s), Gothic fiction, and a variety of art movements including surrealism, dadaism, and symbolism. This category is just as illuminating as the beautiful and the sublime, but it is…Read more ›

Romanticism was a philosophical, literary, and artistic movement that began in the late 1700s and ended at the end of the 1800s.[1] The movement was essentially a reaction to the Enlightenment movement and was therefore essentially a reaction to (1)…Read more ›

What does it mean to ask someone for forgiveness? Jesus said: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). This request, by yoking together forgiveness and ignorance, seems to contradict a necessary condition for forgiveness, namely,…Read more ›

The late Professor Michael Bobkoff passionately taught Honors Holocaust Studies at Westchester Community College in New York for many years. During his last semester (Spring 2012) he gave a talk about the challenges he faced over the years in teaching…Read more ›

Humans are able to think and speak about the world around them. What are the limits of this relationship between our reason (logos) and the things that reason encounters (being)? Nicholas Denyer, in his book Language, Thought, and Falsehood in…Read more ›

In Japanese aesthetics yūgen refers to those moments when we feel as if we have had a partial glimpse into a hidden Reality. Such a glimpse is felt to be profoundly mysterious. It is also experienced as beautiful. According to…Read more ›

In his dialogue On Free Choice of the Will (Macmillan, 1964), St. Augustine (354-430 C.E.) argues that our minds can know truths that are eternal. For Augustine, something is eternal if it exists in a timeless, unchanging state. So eternal truths are unchanging…Read more ›

A note of caution: Plato wrote dialogues not treatises. These dialogues show the life of the philosophical mind at work: questioning, arguing, speculating, imagining, wondering, struggling, and understanding. They do not show finished results that we can confidently attribute to…Read more ›

In his book On the Soul, Aristotle gave the following definition of soul: “The soul is the first actuality of a natural body that is potentially alive” (412a27). This first actuality of the body is the immaterial form of the…Read more ›

Sophists were professional teachers in fifth century Athens, Greece. They offered practical guidance to anyone who was trying to be successful. This guidance was particularly important given the political and cultural climate of Athens at the time: the older aristocracy…Read more ›

Plato’s pupil Aristotle claimed that the “chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness, which the mathematical sciences demonstrate in a special degree”. For many, THE chief form of beauty is the golden ratio. Two quantities are in the…Read more ›

Many of us think that virtue is connected with measure. Vice arises when people are excessive or deficient with regard to their emotions and actions. For example, a character disposition to get excessively angry at the wrong time, toward the…Read more ›

Further, it will not be amiss to distinguish the three kinds and as it were grades of ambition in mankind. The first is of those who desire to extend their own power in their native country; which kind is vulgar…Read more ›

It is a great misfortune and embarrassment that the history of Western philosophy has little to say about why racism—the belief that different races have different qualities and abilities, and that some races are inherently superior or inferior—occurs. One of…Read more ›

The Danish proto-existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) put forth an intriguing account of the demonic in chapter 4 of his eccentric work The Concept of Anxiety (see the Princeton edition translated by the Hongs). Kierkegaard claims the demonic person has “anxiety about the…Read more ›

In his book Human, all too Human, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) wrote: Without Melody: There are people who repose so steadily within themselves and whose capacities are balanced with one another so harmoniously that any activity directed towards a goal is…Read more ›

A note of caution: the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 BCE) wrote dialogues not treatises. These dialogues show the life of the philosophical mind at work: questioning, arguing, speculating, imagining, wondering, struggling, and understanding. They do not show finished results…Read more ›

Philosophy is not easy to define. However, it is clear that philosophy can be differentiated from other disciplines by (1) the type of questions it asks; (2) by the way it answers them; and (3) its purpose. This brief overview…Read more ›

I suspect that anyone who writes on the subject of death has a moment when he or she wonders whether it is better to agree with the Zen monk Toko who, in his dying moment, tells us in a death…Read more ›